Spiffy:

Iffy:

Many of the more interesting elements are yet to be implemented.

The beta phase for The Matrix Online has been going on for a while now, but apart from a handful of publisher-approved missives, we haven't been able to say much about it. This is no longer true. As of today, the blackout is over, and we're kicking off five days of Matrix Online coverage, starting with these hands-on impressions.

At the moment, while there is some interesting stuff going on, what we're playing feels like a somewhat gutted version of what the final game will ultimately be like. Everything is, for the most part, functional. That is to say, combat usually works, crafters are doing their thing, guilds are forming, and the like. What's missing, though, is the game's "soul." None of the story elements are really in place, and given how important these are to the game's experience, things feel a little hollow. The missions don't have any context yet, and the world, which one could totally envision as being excitingly animated and charged with life, feels a bit muted.

Be mindful of the moves you make -- combat requires a bit more concentration than you're normally used to.

That said, it has been very easy to get going with our beta of MxO. After creating a character (the details of which are in this feature), you are thrust into a brief tutorial that teaches you the basics: movement, targeting, interaction, and combat. In a nice move, you're not forced to make any hugely impacting decisions at the outset. All you have to do is choose your physical traits, pick your starting outfit, and choose a basic archetype -- basically, the determining factor for your statistics. The "big decisions" -- i.e., your "class" and such -- come later.

The tutorial is brief; after a couple of combat encounters, you're allowed to jack in. At the end of the last room is a "hardline" -- an access point you use to jump into the Matrix. It looks like a phone booth, and there are many just like it scattered throughout the game's world. You can use them to upload items you find in the Matrix, thus making them permanent, switch your character's skills around, and, of course, to travel quickly throughout the world.

Once you're in the world, it takes a minute before things start to look normal. There's a cool visual effect currently in place that displays everything in the patented Matrix-style green line code for the first two or so minutes. While everything remains playable all throughout, you're likely to be a little jarred until things settle, visually. Once you have your bearings, the whole wide world is open to you. Personally, equipped with the modest skills acquired at the tutorial, I chose to find something to beat on. Not the best use of my time, in retrospect, but having been trained by World of Warcraft to regard any NPC I see with an exclamation mark over its head as a mission-giver, I was a bit frustrated when MxO's counterparts merely spat out jewels of wisdom.